GOP attendees will find beefed-up networks for phones, blogs, video

The 45,000 delegates, organizers, bloggers and reporters expected at the Republican National Convention from Sept. 1-4 will be toting bandwidth-eating cell phones, BlackBerrys and laptops.

Obsessive bloggers like Michael Brodkorb will put the Twin Cities' telecommunications networks to the test. The Eagan Republican and creator of MinnesotaDemocrats Exposed.com estimates that to cover the convention for the blog, he'll spend at least a couple of hours a day on his BlackBerry, as well as a few hours on his Macintosh laptop updating his blog with not just words but video and photos that consume big chunks of bandwidth.

"I expect to be 'hot' — meaning live on the Internet — from the moment I get to the convention to the moment I leave, and then I'll go home and do some more," he said.

To avoid strains on the networks, the area's telecommunications providers are planning now to beef up their systems.

Verizon Wireless expects a 33 percent increase in voice calling and a 150 percent rise in data transmissions on its broadband network that blankets the downtowns in St. Paul and Minneapolis, where convention activities will be centered. Qwest Communications International will add more than 100 miles of fiber-optic and copper lines in and around the Xcel Energy Center, the convention's main site.

The providers said service won't suffer for local customers.

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They've had practice with large events like the Super Bowl or, in St. Paul's case, the high school hockey tournament.

"This is going to be business as usual for Qwest," said John Stanoch, president of Qwest's Minnesota operations.

Ever since the installation of rotary telephones and fax machines on the floor, convention planners have watched the demands for communications infrastructure climb.

This year's convention will add capability for live streaming Internet video and high-definition broadcasting.

Qwest, the official convention telecommunications provider, is donating as much as $6 million in equipment and services.

That includes running a "backbone" of high-speed fiber-optic cable and copper lines from Qwest's central office to the Xcel Energy Center complex and ringing the inside of the complex with more than two miles of fiber and a mile of copper.

An additional 135 miles of copper and several miles of fiber optic cable will be snaked throughout the Xcel Center, as well as inside Roy Wilkins Auditorium and the RiverCentre.

The phone company is providing similar service for the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 25-28 in Denver, where Qwest is based.

Most of the wiring inside the Xcel Center will be removed after the convention, but some improvements will remain to benefit downtown, Stanoch said. The phone company is offering to upgrade service to conventioneer-hosting hotels that request it, he said.

Verizon Wireless has spent $2.3 million to increase its network capacity for the convention and could spend more before it is done, spokeswoman Karen Smith said.

Most of the work is invisible, involving adding circuits to existing cell sites to boost their capacity or increasing the links between cell sites and mobile switching offices.

Verizon also is negotiating with the Minnesota Wild to install a cell site inside the Xcel arena to improve in-building signal strength, Smith said. In addition, the carrier has installed sites on Seventh Street and Minnesota Street in downtown as part of regular upgrades not connected to the convention, she added.

Sprint Nextel will be adding two cell sites — one each for its Sprint and Nextel brands — inside the Xcel and equipment inside 15 hotels, spokeswoman Candace Johnson said. The improvements will be permanent, she said.

ATT is in the planning stage. "I've got folks walking building to building looking at capacity," said Dave Fine, general manager of the carrier's Minnesota operations.

Of the major wireless carriers, only T-Mobile has no plans for convention-related improvements, but a spokeswoman said it will respond if the company determines there's a need for more capacity.

"A lot more people are carrying data devices, and the wireless carriers know that," said Max Everett, chief information officer for the Republican convention planning committee. "We have an idea of what the traffic will be from (our experiences in) 2004, but the technology changes so much." The popularity of online video, exemplified by YouTube, is an example, he said.

In short, the Xcel Center will be pulsing with all sorts of technology except one — Wi-Fi, the short-range but very fast form of wireless access most often seen in homes and coffee shops.

Everett said Wi-Fi has been banned, because it interferes with the wireless microphones and cameras the television networks use on the convention floor. Reporters and others can plug into wired connections in the media rooms.

Blogger Brodkorb doesn't plan to be tied down, though. He uses a Verizon Wireless air card in his laptop to blog on the run.

"I try to be as mobile as I can be," he said. "If I have to sit on the floor and blog, I will."

Leslie Brooks Suzukamo can be reached at 651-228-5475.

45,000

expected number of delegates, organizers and media

33

expected percent increase in wireless voice calls

150

expected percent increase in wireless broadband data

135

miles of copper cabling that will snake throughout the Xcel Energy Center complex

Sources: the Republican National Convention, Verizon Wireless, Qwest Communications International